Shutting down Halladay hasn't been ruled out

Mayberry's defense looked shaky in Sunday's loss to the Braves.

PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies are worried enough about Roy Halladay to not have him listed as the starter on Thursday, which is his scheduled turn in the rotation.

Halladay, who left Saturday night's game after allowing seven earned runs in 12/3 innings, admitted he'd been bothered by spasms near the back of his right shoulder blade for the last couple of days, and they became enough of a nuisance that he saw a doctor Friday and received treatment.

Wednesday is Tyler Cloyd's scheduled day to start, but instead, the Phillies inserted Kyle Kendrick there. If the Phillies opt to skip Halladay's start or shut him down all together — don't forget, Halladay spent almost seven weeks on the disabled list with a right lat strain — Cloyd could be bumped to Thursday, which means he won't have pitched in a week.

Halladay, who did not have an MRI, insisted on Saturday it was nothing serious.

And it might not be, but even Cliff Lee can't help but wonder if it is, especially when you look at Halladay's season numbers as a whole.

Halladay's 4.40 ERA is the highest it's been this season. Dating back to 2002, the right-hander has finished with a season ERA above 4.00 only once (it was 4.20 in his injury-shortened 2004 season). And only three other times during that stretch has his ERA been above 3.00 for the year. Every other year in the last 10 it's been 2.93 or lower.

Aside from April when he posted a 1.95 ERA, little of what Halladay has done has looked like himself. In May, he posted a 6.11 ERA. In July, it was 5.82. He got it down to 3.32 in August but it's back up to 6.75 this month. And in two of those months, opponents have a batting average of .310 or higher against him.

"He's been the best pitcher in baseball for the past decade," Lee said of Halladay, who entered the season with the most wins among all major league pitchers from 2002-11. "Any time you see a guy go through some struggles that's been that good you wonder why, you wonder what's going on. I can't speak for him, but it's definitely not what you would expect from him. So it definitely raises some questions and wonder as to what's going on there."

Manager Charlie Manuel said he expects Halladay to be checked out again by team physician Dr. Michael Ciccotii, and the organization should have a better idea on Tuesday as to whether or not Halladay will finish out the season.

"Not anything that's long-term," Halladay said Saturday. "[I had it] looked at by the doctors and [it's] nothing that they're concerned about."

MAYBERRY LOOKING SHAKY

John Mayberry Jr. did not look sharp in center field Sunday. He made an error on a ball hit by pitcher Tim Hudson and couldn't get to another ball hit by Martin Prado. That ball was ruled a hit, and Mayberry, who dove for it, wasn't far off from making the catch. But if he had made a better read on the ball, he likely would have caught it.

"He was having trouble," Manuel said. "Maybe the ball was carrying, you'd have to ask him. But he made some mistakes."

His defense, coupled with his inconsistencies offensively, don't have Manuel giving him a ringing endorsement. Manuel was asked flat-out if Mayberry is an everyday player and the manager didn't sound convincing.

"I wouldn't send him that message that he's not," Manuel said. "He's gotten a chance to play the second half of the season. Since we did those things [at the trade deadline] he's probably had the chance to relax a little bit. He started to hit the ball more in the middle of the field and things started to go well for a while. He's got talent as we always say. But when I look up there, I see — not just with John but other players — but when you play a position, we need to have production."

Prior to the July 31 trade deadline, Mayberry hit .230 (55-for-239) with 25 RBIs, 12 walks and eight home runs. In 48 games since then, he's batting .290 (51-for-173) with 21 RBIs, 19 walks and six home runs.